2024 Draft

[GW21]

3 minutes ago, adamq said:

My final mock, pie in the sky edition

I did a mock on mockdraftdatabase, but I'm cheating because my first two picks didn't actually fall. So let's say I traded up using future capital 🤣  rest of the picks were from the players available to me

 

31. Cooper Dejean, DB extraordinaire, IOWA

63. Ja'Lynn Polk, WR, Washington

94. Blake Fisher, OT ND... sub in whatever OT i don't have an opinion on them 

124. Sedrick Van Pran IOL Georgia.. same as the last pick.

132. Erick All, TE, IOWA

135. Ray Davis, RB Kentucky

176. Khristian Boyd, DT UNI

211. Chau Smith-Wade, CB Wash St

215. Tatum Bethune, LB Florida St

251. Sam Hartman QB ND - I think if there were a Purdy of this draft, ie. a 7th/udfa who turns into a decent QB, it's Hartman. Small but he is a baller

My mid to late QBs I like this year are Pratt, Travis, and Slovis.

[49ers Finest]

5 hours ago, Gravity said:

Any website where they have rankings by positions and during the draft the names are being crossed out as they are drafted?

The CBS Sports app has it. I use that to follow along while im watching

[JIllg]

Xavier Legette, WR South Carolina - Lagette is another guy I've already done a breakdown on given our interest in a long term Deebo replacement as the complementary WR. Physically, Lagette is basically a clone of A.J. Brown. Both a touch under 6'1", ~220 with explosive verticals (Lagette's is 40"!), likely average agility metrics (though I'd have liked to see Lagette test in this regard), speed to stack against DBs, and thick lower bodies that can really outphysical corners into breaks and at the catch point. The main concern is how late it took him to be literally anything as a college football player. He is 23 now and this past year was the only year with any production. There are reasons - personal tragedies, injuries, position conversions - but late single-year breakouts are not a historically winning gamble. But man, do I want to see Kyle get a hold of the physical profile as a guy that took A.J. Brown in the "Better than a GM" draft at Deebo's spot.

Nate Wiggins, CB Clemson - Ooookay. Did not expect to be looking into Wiggins going into the draft process because he was the highest rated consensus corner prior to the pre-draft process, but here we are. The great is just obvious on tape - he's got nutty closing speed. Chasing down runners from behind, making up for cheating a little too hard on shorter throws, jumping from deep quarters to affect or pick off outs and hitches. These are effortless and really impressive. He faced a lot of NFL competition this year between the ACC schedule and Xavier Legette. And a lot of pretty crazy physical dudes in Legette, Johnny Wilson, and Keon Coleman. The bad is also obvious - he was a really thin dude on tape and slimmed down even more for the combine to a weight that is untenable for an NFL corner. About the bits in between - I enjoy his feistiness with receivers. He's not as contact avoidant as you might expect for a guy that slim. I don't like how often he has to use that closing speed. He struggles physically often at the line of scrimmage or when the guy passes him in his drop and gets stacked and has to recover from being out of phase too often for my liking. Really fluid mirroring in man across the field. Like him better on the back hip in these situations than when he's presented with immediate physical contact with the receiver on a vertical stem. Just an outlier player that has some serious potential and some serious concerns. My concerns are less with run defense or tackling than with physicality at the route stem. But we'll see.

Andru Philips, CB Kentucky - Philips played a lot of deep quarters coverage and as a overhang zone slot defender from the nickel. I really liked his zone tape - mirrored a couple of double moves well on the tape that I saw. Triggers like a bit of a lunatic missile on screens and runs sometimes without wrap up technique, but you have to like the enthusiasm and ability to at least redirect the play. I definitely prefer this to the alternative. The guy looks just like a prototypical corner. Trim without being slim or lanky. Fast enough catch up speed. Long enough. And he tested like that guy at the combine, too. 5'11" 190 with longer arms for his height. I'd have liked to see more reps with more meaningful coverage responsibilities - as the quarters corner you mostly have to not get beat on double moves, not offer too much on curls and comebacks, and rally to your assignments underneath - but I enjoyed what I saw.

Trevin Wallace, LB Kentucky - Wallace's most impressive reps on tape are going right through running backs on pass pro to get sacks. He's a very short, very dense guy that's really explosive and he just pulverises running backs that try to pick him up. In coverage, Kentucky did play a lot of quarters related zones that will translate. Wallace was not the most intuitive defender, but he made a couple of nice plays when he understood what was going on and triggered. He's a really impressive athlete all the way around and relentless, but man he does not find his way around or through run blocks enough. Very straight line-y. And when he isn't just running over running backs in pass pro, he has no other ideas as a blitzer. The athletic traits are really intriguing, but the work that you're going to have to put in with him is pretty daunting.

Tatum Bethune, LB Florida State - Tatum is really, really short for a linebacker. And he's light. And he tested super slow. He does do some things that I really like. He's got an odd way of handling blocks - ducking and dodging sometimes, using a long arm others - but he finds his way around plenty of them. Had a tremendous play running the pole in a Tampa 2. I actually really like his zone tape when he isn't forced to get into long speed mode. Weird dude. Along with Wallace, looks like we are looking into Greenlaw insurance on day 3. 

 

 

Edited April 24 by JIllg

[WhyAmIHere]

I agree completely, I'd be happy with any of these dudes:

 

 

[WhyAmIHere]

https://www.nfl.com/news/bucky-brooks-2024-nfl-mock-draft-4-0-dt-byron-murphy-ii-is-first-defender-taken-bengals-select-wr

 

Bucky Books mock, it's a worst case scenario for the 49ers.  No idea what they would do in this situation.  He had us reaching for Morgan.  I'd probably go with McConkey.  What would you do if they can't trade down?  Gotta go WR or Zach Frazier imo.  I think we need Penix to go in the first for one of the really good guys to fall....and from what I'm hearing, I think he will.  

Edited April 24 by WhyAmIHere

[AustrianNiner]

6 hours ago, JIllg said:

Trevin Wallace, LB Kentucky - Wallace's most impressive reps on tape are going right through running backs on pass pro to get sacks. He's a very short, very dense guy that's really explosive and he just pulverises running backs that try to pick him up. In coverage, Kentucky did play a lot of quarters related zones that will translate. Wallace was not the most intuitive defender, but he made a couple of nice plays when he understood what was going on and triggered. He's a really impressive athlete all the way around and relentless, but man he does not find his way around or through run blocks enough. Very straight line-y. And when he isn't just running over running backs in pass pro, he has no other ideas as a blitzer. The athletic traits are really intriguing, but the work that you're going to have to put in with him is pretty daunting.

 

 

Sounds just like Greenlaw coming out, no? If there's a position I 100% trust this organisation to take a developmental guy and actually develop him, it's LB. 

Edited April 24 by AustrianNiner

[JIllg]

2 hours ago, AustrianNiner said:

Sounds just like Greenlaw coming out, no? If there's a position I 100% trust this organisation to take a developmental guy and actually develop him, it's LB. 

Dre was kind of the opposite, actually. A lot more like Hufunga. Experienced, highly productive player that was small and tested like a poor athlete for that size. Now, Arkansas did share contradictory gps data on that front.

Edited April 24 by JIllg

[AustrianNiner]

6 minutes ago, JIllg said:

Dre was kind of the opposite, actually. A lot more like Hufunga. Experienced, highly productive player that was small and tested like a poor athlete for that size. Now, Arkansas did share contradictory gps data on that front.

That is totally correct, don't know why I thought of him otherwise lol. 

[J-ALL-DAY]

8 hours ago, WhyAmIHere said:

I agree completely, I'd be happy with any of these dudes:

 

 

I'd add more to this list. Still not sure about DeJean and if I'd take him over other secondary guys. 

No secret, but I'd definitely add Chop to the list. 

Newton would be such a clutch pick but hard to see him falling to #31.

[StevenK]

The Darius Robinson rumors are heating up. This is the one guy I thought we would love to get. He’s the typical Niner pick. 

[AustrianNiner]

3 minutes ago, StevenK said:

The Darius Robinson rumors are heating up. This is the one guy I thought we would love to get. He’s the typical Niner pick. 

Him, followed up by Rosengarten and one of Phillips or Baker definitely feels like a likely scenario. 

DJ mentioned that multiple teams want to move up for OTs, which could lead to OT's maybe flying off the board even quicker than anticipated. I just hope they don't panic and feel the need to get Rosengarten at 31 then. 

[Forge]

15 minutes ago, StevenK said:

The Darius Robinson rumors are heating up. This is the one guy I thought we would love to get. He’s the typical Niner pick. 

Kind of a bad thing based on the 49ers first round history 

[JIllg]

Decamerion Richardson, CB Mississippi State - Richardson's body is built out of similar building blocks to Nate Wiggins. Both are taller, higher cut, slimmer corners with tremendous make up speed (though Richardson isn't as slim or as fast as Wiggins). Like Wiggins, occasionally had some lapses that caused him to have to use that recovery speed more than you'd like. Like Wiggins, he's feisty enough as a tackler and run defender to do his job, heck Richardson is so feisty he's even a plus in this regard. However, unlike Wiggins, he didn't demonstrate the stickiness you'd like on cross field man coverage assignments - he played more zone and entirely on the outside. Also unlike Wiggins, Richardson just didn't effect the catch point enough. Gave up a poor completion % against by being too loose. But there's a lot here to like here in terms of makeup and physical profile. Finally, unlike Wiggins, Richardson is a very old prospect at 23 and while he's played a lot of football and been a solid starter, the age is still concerning.

Jacob Cowing, WR Arizona - So, with Cowing I have to get the physical testing out of the way because he showed up at 5'8, 168 and ran a 4.38. I didn't think that was representitive of his tape. I thought he was significantly denser (in the 175-180 range) on tape and a mid 4.4s kind of guy. On tape, he's a short, smooth route runner that generates a lot of seperation and gets average RAC in spite of his smaller size just by being pretty dense. He reminded me of Pierre Garcon (albeit a smaller one, lol). A similar profile to Malik Washington in some ways, but Cowing is less dense, much less exciting after the catch, but played a more traditional role in his offense than the gadgety stuff Malik was doing most of the time. Finally, Cowing is another old prospect at 23 that has been a highly targeted receiver for years in college. He's had more reps in college than a lot of this class will have in their entire NFL careers. Higher floor, lower ceiling guy.

Layden Robinson, OG Texas A&M - Layden Robinson is a shorter, quicker, offensive guard with long arms (34.5"). Another older guy at nearly 23. Physically, he's very similar to Christian Haynes - a little less mass with longer arms. Had some of those Haynes-like bowling ball run blocks where he just rolls guys out of the play as a zone blocker. And some pretty pass blocking reps. But man, his bad reps are really bad. Overeager, leaning, whiffing. He's got a few things that I like enough to enjoy having him in the building, but it's hard to expect him to get much better at pass protection at this point. At least he has the physical gifts to give him a chance.

McKinnley Jackson, DT Texas A&M - Jackson is a short, stubby defensive tackle that is pretty quick in short areas for his weight class. He played a lot more 1T this year compared this his more 3T profile last year. Really didn't like the 2 gapping technique - often just gets stood up and doesn't get to the correct shoulder to close down the lane. More effective as a one gap guy - he is pretty quick and powerful and can turn shoulders of offensive linemen. Didn't like his bull rush at all. For a bigger guy, he just lacks explosive power or length and tends to be sat on when he goes down the middle of people. But if he aims that power at the outside shoulder, he's got more of a chance. A later round D.J. Jones-y sort of nose tackle play, I think.

Chau Smith-Wade, CB Washington State - First off, Chau Smith-Wade is small for a corner, but built well enough. 5'10", 180. I really enjoyed watching his tape. Nice feel for route concepts as a zone defender. Passes guys off correctly and picks up the new guy well. Quite sticky and fights hard to make plays when not in coverage, but his size is going to limit his ability to actually break up passes and make the plays that he tries to get to. Tested like a quite poor athlete for his size - had to make up for those limitations by knowing exactly what to do all of the time. Smart, feisty, limited defender. Higher floor, lower ceiling.

Caedan Wallace, OT Penn State - Wallace has the default build you want for an offensive lineman ~6'5", 315 with 34 inch arms. He's had a lot of college experience, but it was only this year that he's really showed anything impressive and that the age of 24 - old even for this ancient draft class. Actually really liked some of his tape. Handled JT Tuimoloau to the point they had JT switch sides to pick on Olu Fashanu. Anchors well, but doesn't have the greatest range to his sets. In the run blocking, he gets in fine positions most of the time, but he's got no urgency or juice or lock on and guys tend to make plays around him. And that's concerning when you're already 24. But there's some useful traits here. I think he could play right away and do a mediocre job for you, but what he is now is what you are going to get.

 

Edited April 24 by JIllg

[Forge]

I've made my thoughts known on Robinson. As a prospect projecting him, I'm sort of cold on him. Its not a crazy reach or anything, would just be underwhelmed. But there are a lot of people I'd be underwhelmed with at 31. It's just a really tricky part in the draft. 

It's pretty funny because Ben Solak comped Robinson to Charles Omenihu and if I take a review like approach to pick 31 after the fact and got Charles Omenihu, I think that would be a fine use of that pick. That's a pick that turned out pretty well, imo. But before the pick is made, thinking on it from a projection standpoint of a draft pick, Charles Omenihu feels so underwhelmingly unsatisfying because we want every first round pick, no matter where they are taken, to be a 1300 receiving yards / 12 sack / 5 int  type player, which is just completely unrealistic LOL 

[Forge]

That is funny